COMM@SJSU

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Dr. Spangler's stage adaptation of The Kite Runner is receiving great reviews at the Liverpool Playhouse and Brighton Festival (Theatre Royal). The play was previously at the Nottingham Playhouse (for reviews at this venue, see previous blog post):

Sussex Express“This is honestly the best play I have ever
seen at the Theatre Royal and the best thing I have seen throughout the
Brighton Festival. It was fascinating, intricate, with plenty of plot
twists to surprise you, and made for compelling viewing. If you go and
see one play this year, make it this one.” Read more >>The Brighton Magazine“The rousing standing ovation was richly deserved.” Read more >>The Latest (U.K.)“Spangler’s brilliant adaptation makes for one of the most intensely moving theatrical experiences I have experienced.” Read more >>Brighton Fringe Review“It is not often I give a standing ovation
during a night at the theatre and it is even more infrequent that I am
moved to tears by a live performance. Yet, at The Kite Runner last night I found myself doing both things simultaneously, along with the majority of the audience in the Theatre Royal.” Read more >>Financial Times (London) “Beautifully performed.” Read more >>British Theatre Guide“A phenomenally powerful piece of theatre.” Read more >>Liverpool Echo“Utterly gripping.” Read more >>Liverpool Daily Post“Wonderfully told.” Read more >>Liverpool Live“It is with no surprise the production received a lengthy standing ovation.” Read more >>Click Liverpool“This production wrings every drop of emotion from the audience and was rewarded with a well-deserved standing ovation.” Read more >>BBC Radio Merseyside“It’s absolutely brilliant. Go see it!” Read more >>Liverpool Confidential“A powerful tour-de-force.” Read more >>What’s On Stage (Liverpool)“Intensely, relentlessly gripping.” Read more >>Exeunt Magazine (U.K.)“Beautifully paced . . . Spangler’s scenes seem to fly by.” Read more >>Reviews Gate (U.K.)“Matthew Spangler has managed in his adaptation a synthesis which transfers beautifully to the stage.” Read more >>Behind the Arras (U.K.)“A wise adaptation flying high.” Read more >>

Friday, May 3, 2013

Dr. Spangler's stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini'snovel The Kite Runner opened this week at the Nottingham Playhouse in the UK. This is the European
Premiere of the play. So far, reviews have been great. It will also be
produced at the Brighton Festival and the Liverpool Playhouse. It runs
through the middle of July.

Daily Telegraph (London)"This show, a European premiere, stands shoulder to shoulder with the
best work in the regions and judging by the thronging auditorium, the theatre has a hit on his hands that
deserves to travel the country beyond its scheduled stops of Brighton and
Liverpool."

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Leading Vietnamese-American author Andrew
Lam will speak about his new book, Birds
of Paradise Lost, in the Martin Luther King Library (room 255) on
Wednesday, March 20 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm.

This event is free and open to the
public.

Andrew
Lam is the author of Perfume Dreams:
Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, which won the 2006 PEN Open Book
Award, and East Eats West: Writing in Two
Hemispheres. He is an editor and cofounder of New American Media, an
association of over two thousand ethnic media outlets in the U.S. He
was a regular commentator on NPR’s All
Things Considered for many years, and was the subject of a 2004 PBS
documentary My Journey Home. His
essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines, such as the New York Times, The LA Times, The San
Francisco Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal, The Chicago
Tribune, Mother Jones, and The Nation,
among many others.

The
thirteen stories in Birds of Paradise
Lost shimmer with humor and pathos as they chronicle the anguish and joy
and bravery of new Americans, the troubled lives of those who fled Vietnam and
remade themselves in the San Francisco Bay Area. Past memories -- of war
and its aftermath, of murder, arrest, re-education camps and new economic
zones, of escape and shipwreck and atrocity -- are ever present in Andrew Lam’s
wise and compassionate stories. Birds
of Paradise Lost is an emotional tour de force, intricately rendering the
false starts and revelations in the immigrant experience, and in so doing, the
human heart.

“Read Andrew Lam, and bask in his love of
language, and his compassion for people, both those here and those from far
away. He reminds us that we have history in common; we can laugh and cry
together.”

-- Maxine Hong Kingston

“Andrew Lam’s Birds of Paradise Lost brilliantly engages the fundamental theme of
much great literary work: who am I and what is my place in the universe? His
stories are elegant and humane and funny and sad. Lam has instantly established
himself as one of our finest fiction writers.”

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Students who have already taken a course from Professor
Shawn Spano or Minna Holopainen that was based in SJSU’s Difficult or Diversity
Dialogue Project (COMM 105P, 115P or 141P).

What are the
Requirements?

Students who enroll in COMM 198 or 280 will assist Professors
Spano Shawn.Spano@sjsu.edu and Holopainen Minna.Holopainen@sjsu.edu in training the students in his COMM 141P course to design
and facilitate difficult dialogues on campus.

Specifically, this requires attending a half-day dialogue
training on Friday, February 17, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm, and at least one campus
difficult dialogue event (date and time TBA). Depending whether you enroll for
1 or 2 units, additional activities will be required, including attending other
campus dialogues and some of the COMM 141P class sessions (meets on Mondays and
Wednesdays, 3:00 – 4:15 pm).

Obtain a COMM 198 or 280 contract from Professor Spano or
the Department of Communication office staff (HGH 108). Fill out the top part
asking for you name, student ID#, etc.

In the middle section, indicate whether you want to sign up
for 1 or 2 units for the “Research Project.”

In the bottom section, indicate that you will be under the
supervision of Professor Shawn Spano, and that you propose this project:

Assist Professors Spano and
Holopainen in designing a half-day dialogue training for COMM 141P students,
and work as a trainer/facilitator for that session. Also assist in designing
and facilitating at least one campus difficult dialogue.

Give a copy of the completed contact to Professor Spano for
my signature. Then drop the contract off at the Communication Studies main
office (HGH 108) for the Department Chair's signature and the add code.

Note: Complete all paperwork by Thursday, February 9, to meet the add deadline of Monday, February 13.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Marjorie Hazeltine and her co-author Kurt Zemlicka received the Top Debut Paper Award from the Performance Studies division at NCA last month in New Orleans. Their paper is titled "The Reality of Contingency: Performance as Materialized Trope and the Theorization of Rupture." Congratulations to the great folks who represented San Jose State at our national conference!